The Fifth Season

(First new episode to air on Wednesday night 9:30 to 10:00 PM)

The WNYX staff mourns the passing of Bill McNeal (the character played by Phil Hartman, who died in May 1998) in a fifth-season opener that’s both wry and moving. The episode opens immediately after the anchorman’s memorial service. The group has trouble dealing with the situation–except for clueless Matthew. Matthew isn’t sad because he doesn’t believe that Bill is dead. Catherine (Khandi Alexander) makes a return visit.

Jon Lovitz joins the cast as Max Louis, Bill McNeal’s replacement. With Bill gone, Dave must find a replacement, and he leaves it to the staff to choose between two candidates. The applicant who catches the group’s fancy, however, isn’t one of Dave’s picks, but one from the rejection pile instead. It seems that Max once worked with Bill, making him a sentimental favorite–for everyone but Matthew, who’s determined to despise anyone who takes Bill’s job. And there’s another problem: Max has had 37 jobs in 20 years. Meanwhile, a computer glitch introduced by Joe has the office machines on the fritz.

Lisa goes undercover at a fast food restaurant, where she’s soon made assistant manager. David Anthony Higgins (Ellen) guest stars as the restaurant manager. Joe and Matthew dig deeper into Max Louis’s past, and learn that he has doctored up his resume.

Joe builds a white noise machine to help Dave relax after the staff learns that he has high blood pressure, but it works a bit too well. Meanwhile, Matthew becomes motherly toward Max after a talking-to from Beth, and Max makes a mockery of Lisa’s prized "This Day in History" segment.

Dave is amazed with the results of Joe’s "smart drink" experiment after he tries it on Matthew, turning him into a genius. Max resorts to some immature methods to get Beth to like him.

Jimmy is taken away by the FBI under suspicion of being the infamous hijacker D. B. Cooper. While Joe and the other staff members make plans to spring him from jail, corporate vice president Johnny Johnson (guest star Patrick Warburton, Seinfeld) takes charge.

Lisa admits to being attracted to Johnny (guest star Patrick Warburton), and Dave realizes he must exploit their relationship in order to protect Jimmy, who has escaped from jail and is hiding out from the FBI at Dave’s parents’ home in Wisconsin.

(First new episode to air on Tuesday night 8:30 to 9:00 PM)

Jimmy is found not guilty and freed from jail when a surprise witness (guest star Adam West as himself) tips the scales of justice in Jimmy’s favor. Upon his release he discovers that Johnny (Patrick Warburton) has stolen his empire, leaving Jimmy with one Internet property–and just one employee to take with him.

Staffers try to help–but mostly hinder–as Dave tries to record an inspirational message for students at his alma mater. Meanwhile, Max tries to cure Lisa’s speech impediment (a sibilant s), but she ends up reverting to her childhood Boston accent.

Beth’s plea for profit sharing, a program Jimmy had been planning to implement, turns into an office war when Jimmy, fearing that he will look weak, refuses to offer it. Meanwhile, Matthew ‘recalls’ ritual abuse after undergoing hypnosis therapy, and decides to torment the supposed ringleader, Lisa Miller.

Dave defends the artistic integrity of Joe and Beth’s offbeat mural painting for the office lobby, while Max is convinced that Jimmy’s new security consultant (guest star Toby Huss) is an impostor. Also, Lisa is upset when Matthew wears the same sweater as her.

When Dave and Lisa vie for the same apartment, Jimmy gives the final decision to other staffers, including Max, who decides he wants it for himself. Meanwhile, Joe and Beth spice up the station’s new web site.

Matthew’s 30^th birthday elicits a strange reaction–he adopts the persona of a rebellious punk. Meanwhile, Lisa is against Jimmy’s plans to build a 200-storey building in New York.

Joe hypnotizes Jimmy to help him relive and resolve memories of a terrifying incident from the ’60s, with Matthew along for the ride as a hitchhiker. Beth and Max spoil Lisa’s puppy, Daisy.

Lisa’s foxy new assistant (guest star Tiffani-Amber Thiessen of Beverly Hill 90210 and Saved by the Bell) throws the office into chaos when she falls for Dave, while driving a lovesick Joe crazy. Jimmy turns the men’s room into a cigar lounge.

Jennifer: Dave and Joe as rivals for the affections of Lisa's foxy new assistant Foxy (a decent, though unexceptional, performance by guest star Tiffani Thiessen). It sounds inspired but doesn't end up eliciting any really big laughs, with the possible exception of a t-shirt gag. The Men's Room subplot is also an inspired idea and ends up being more successful, especially with Beth's contributions. Overall though, there's a serious energy deficiency throughout.

Adrian: I always enjoy watching "Assistant," but no episode embodies season five's combination of technical brilliance and longer-term artistic blunders than this one. In most regards "Assistant" is as great as any other NewsRadio episode. The comedy is inventive and funny, and we see an interesting side of every character. And then we come to the final scene between Dave and Lisa. Dave and Lisa are in the men's room, sipping cognac, and reminiscing about the disaster of office romances. Dave asks Lisa, "So, ah, you want to lock the door and walk around naked?" Lisa thinks for a long moment then replies, "Not a chance." Dave: "Putting it out there." Lisa: "Well, you'd better just put it right back in." After seeing Lisa carrying a torch for Dave through virtually all of season four (and Dave's self-denial that she still means something to him) the irreversible finality of the moment comes as a shock, but the overwhelming feeling is that the show had somehow reached a dead-end. No doubt the moment was created in awareness of where the show would go in "Wino" and "Wedding." It was at this moment that the astute viewer realized that the show no longer had anything worthwhile to say about life, living and the world. The show would still be funny, but from this point on all of its references would be internal with no real resonance with the world at large. If you want to locate the exact moment when they killed NewsRadio, this was it.

Jimmy’s ruthless nemesis Johnny Johnson (guest star Patrick Warburton) turns up again. This time Matthew discovers him as a homeless vagrant battling alcoholism. But Lisa still swoons in his presence.

Jennifer: You'll be hard-pressed to find any hardcore NewsRadio fan that approves of Lisa's romance with Johnny Johnson (Patrick Warburton). I'm no different. I enjoyed much of Warburton's contribution to the D.B. Cooper story arc, but this reintroduction of Johnny Johnson eliminates the thing that made his character so interesting, namely his evilness. Instead, we have honourable, lovey-dovey Johnny, now a wino, trying to win back Lisa. Yawn.

Adrian: I think Patrick Warburton did a fantastic job in all his guest star appearances. I continue to find his performances here and in "Wedding" fascinating while at the same time regarding the decision to introduce a Lisa-Johnny marriage storyline as boneheaded idiocy. Those familiar with my critical style will know that the one thing I really criticize without any restraint is artistic incompetence. The concept behind "Wino" and "Wedding" constitute sheer artistic incompetence by people who apparently had no understanding of the true nature of the art they were creating (see the "Changes: Season Five" chapter in the main text for the reasons why). As far I know, Paul Simms was engaged with another project at the time of these episodes so he at least may have an excuse.

As Lisa prepares for her wedding, Johnny (guest star Patrick Warburton) may end up behind bars as an undercover cop stalks him for heisting Lisa’s wedding ring. Meanwhile Dave tries to talk her out of going through with the wedding.

Jennifer: I prefer this episode to "Wino" for its sheer entertainment value. If you can get over the forced ratings stunt that is Lisa and Johnny's wedding (which, for whatever reason, some people still can't), you'll get a kick or two out of this one.

A sly Max tries to convince Dave that he’s leaving WNYX for greener pastures, when in fact it’s just a last ditch ploy to get Beth to go out with him. Meanwhile, Matthew loves Lisa’s new hyphenated married moniker, but Joe thinks that changing her "brand name" will bring nothing but trouble.

Dave’s inability to get the staff to do any work drives him to the point of insanity, and it is Lisa who tries to save everyone’s job. After Matthew gets a black eye from a teenage girl at a Natalie Merchant concert, both Matthew and Max become fascinated by Joe’s martial arts skills and enlist Joe to become their sensei. Also, Jimmy spearheads a campaign to banish Mother’s Day from the national holiday calendar.

"This episode was directed by series regular Dave Foley."

Matthew accidentally erases Jimmy’s fortune when the two swap lives for a day. Dave discovers that Max has been poaching on the staff’s lunches. Lisa finds out about Beth’s mail-order scam.

When Jimmy James announces his sudden plans for a bucolic retirement to the stunned WNYX crew, Lisa quickly organizes a low key farewell party that she thinks will change his mind, but Beth’s over-the-top farewell production provides for drunken toasts and crazy dance numbers, none of which give Mr. James a reason to stay. Meanwhile, Matthew panics when he realizes that soon he won’t have a job under Dave’s rule and quickly brushes up on his rusty interview skills with Beth and Joe as his mock interviewers.

Dave ponders his future at WNYX without Jimmy, until he’s faced with a bigger problem when the rest of the crew, except Matthew, decide to leave to join Jimmy.